You use the Alerts feature to review and evaluate system messages that are related to activity on your grids. An Alerts link on the product masthead lets you open an Alerts dialog that provides detailed information about the alert. You can manage the current list of alerts by acknowledging them to remove them from the default display. You can also specify the number of days to save your alert history.
You can activate email notification of alerts to receive an email when an alert at a designated severity level occurs. You can enable or disable the feature at any time using the check box on the Users page.
In this release, download and monitoring alerts have been included.
Note: For more information see How to Work with System Alerts in the BFC User Guide.
The Versions page of the BFC has been redesigned with new options for working with and managing CA AppLogic versions and hotfixes. This new feature changes the download of CA AppLogic versions from an automatic process to a more deterministic mechanism. The redesigned page allows you to selectively download versions and hotfixes to the local download location and then import them for use with a grid.
In earlier versions of CA AppLogic the download subsystem checked the download server periodically and downloaded all available product versions. This approach sometimes downloaded versions that were not needed, and involved significant amounts of data.
The new approach to version downloads provides more control to the user, delivers desired versions more quickly, and reduces the burden on customer networks.
New columns on the page display the size and status of the download. The BFC 3.7 Alerts feature is linked to the new download management functionality, so that you receive an alert when a new version is available.
Note: For more information, see Download and Import Software Versions and Hotfixes: in the BFC User Guide.
New features allow you to modify external storage options for existing grids.
You can work with the Storage tab on the Grid Properties dialog to designate external storage for an existing grid. You can also switch from external to local storage, or modify properties for external storage you already designated. In earlier versions of the BFC you could only designate an external storage default, which you would then assign during the grid create process. Now, the process is more dynamic, enabling you to change external storage designations after you create the grid.
Note: For more information see External Storage Options in the BFC User Guide.
You can use the CA AppLogic Hardware Validation Tool to run a basic hardware compatibility check in a bare metal environment. This validation simulates the same discovery process that the BFC uses when you inventory a new server. You collect inventory and network information about each server for future analysis, in case a node does not meet the minimum requirements. You create a bootable USB drive with the hardware validation image in Linux, validate the hardware requirements, and save the inventory configuration data on the drive. You can use the drive to view the saved data on another Linux computer.
Note: For more information, see How to Validate Your Hardware with a Bootable USB Drive in the Hardware Requirements guide.
The User Properties page has been enhanced to let you work with the User Actions menu to enable, disable, unlock or delete a user in the User Properties page.
The header in the Grid Properties page has been enhanced to provide more information about the grid and let you work with the Grid Actions menu on this page.
Note: For more information, see User Actions in the User Properties Page and Grid Actions in the Grid Properties Page in the BFC User Guide.
When you create a grid, you can now create a smart tag on the Xen and VMware pages of the New Grid wizard. In earlier versions, you had to exit the dialog to create a smart tag.
Note: For more information see Add a Smart Tag When you Create a Grid in the BFC User Guide.
The jumbo_frames_mode parameter was added to grid parameter options in the BFC.
Set this parameter to =enable to enable jumbo frames on the grid. Enabling jumbo frames increases throughput when using 10G hardware with CA AppLogic.
Valid values for the jumbo_frames_mode parameter are:
=enable - Turns on jumbo frame support on your grid. This action changes the MTU of all private interfaces on grid nodes, controller and running appliances, if any, from 1500 to 9000.
=disable - Turns off jumbo frame support on your grid. This action changes the MTU of all private interfaces on grid nodes, controller and running appliances, if any, from 9000 to 1500.
=auto - Determines if your grid nodes have 10G backbone network adapters, then turns on jumbo frame support. If 10g backbone network adapters are not detected, jumbo frame support support is not turned on. At the time of grid creation, the default jumbo frames mode is auto.
Note: For more information, see Grid Parameters Reference in the BFC User Guide.
Optimizations introduced with the BFC 3.5.2 have resulted in the following scalability and performance improvements:
The Backbone Fabric Controller now supports secondary drives that are larger than 2.2TB in size for the grid servers.
Support for larger disks hinges on being able to first boot off of a disk that can use the MBR partitioning format. The boot disk must also appear as the first disk when booted (generally /dev/sda). As long as you have at least one such disk, other disks may be larger than 2.2TB.
We have extended the functionality of BFC APIs. You can now use them to configure and manage networks, control the discovery process, and control the power of servers.
Note: For more information, see the BFC API Reference Guide and the following BFC API How-to articles in the BFC User Guide:
If you need to replace or create a new root key on the BFC, you can use the rekey script to push a new root SSH key into the utility image and BFC database. This may be necessary for security purposes, or if if the SSH key is lost for some reason. The script is installed with the BFC to the /opt/bfc/bin folder.
Note: For more information, see: Change the Root Key on the BFC and Run the rekey Script in the BFC User Guide.
|
Copyright © 2013 CA Technologies.
All rights reserved.
|
|